Russia might freeze WTO accession talks

An aide to President Vladimir Putin says that Moscow could put WTO
accession negotiations with the US on hold if no progress is made in the near
future.

"We have reached a critical point beyond which there may be no further
retreat. We cannot give way anymore now. The situation with the United States is
about the same: it has also reached a critical point," Igor Shuvalov said.

Russia's bilateral negotiations with the US over its bid to join the world's
largest trade body broke down in July over differences on agriculture.

Shuvalov said the Russian government could make some unconventional decisions
on WTO accession, but that
there was no desire to join it at any price. "The government may decide to
suspend the process and then restart the talks [at a later stage]," he said.

The US currently enjoys concessions under agreements signed between the two
countries in 2005, which will remain in force until 2009. The agreements raised
quotas on US supplies of poultry meat to 1.2 billion metric tons, of beef to
450,000 tons and of pork to 502,000 tons. The United States earns about $1
billion on poultry meat exports to Russia annually.